Converting a late 944 power steering rack to a “manual” rack (These instructions are for my own personal use. If you follow these instructions and damage your car, yourself, your dog, hurt your feelings, or get a busted knuckle, it is not my fault. Use at your own risk. You are liable for your own actions.) 1. Start by removing the rack from the car. I left the tie-rod ends attached to the spindles and unscrewed the inner tie rods from the rack, since they had to be removed anyway. I ended up cutting many of the hard lines from the power steering system to ease removing the rack; this will ruin your power steering system permantely, so do at your own risk.
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Converting a late 944 power steering rack to a “manual” rackConverting a late 944 power steering rack to a “manual” rack (These instructions are for my own personal use. If
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Converting a late 944 power steering rack to a “manual” rack
(These instructions are for my own personal use. If you follow these instructions and damage
your car, yourself, your dog, hurt your feelings, or get a busted knuckle, it is not my fault. Use
at your own risk. You are liable for your own actions.)
1. Start by removing the rack from the car. I left the tie-rod ends attached to the spindles and
unscrewed the inner tie rods from the rack, since they had to be removed anyway. I ended up
cutting many of the hard lines from the power steering system to ease removing the rack; this
will ruin your power steering system permantely, so do at your own risk.
2. Remove the three screws holding this little plate on. Remove the two larger bolts by
alternating a few turns on each bolt; the plate is under tension from the spring.
3. Remove the three bolts on the top of the “tower” of the rack. The black seal is holding the
cover in place, so very carefully pry it up trying not to scratch the mating surface.
Here is a view from the top, once the cover is removed.
4. Carefully pull up on the shaft, being careful not to scratch the steering mechanism, or lose any
of the washers or bearings. Pay very close attention to the order of the bearings and washers.
Here is a view of all the items removed thus far.
5. Here is a view of the housing. Carefully remove the bearing and washer underneath it.
6. Use a hammer and punch (or something similar) to tap this ring in a counter-clockwise
direction. Keep unscrewing until the two halves of the rack are separated.
I used a T15 torx driver.
7. Separate the two halves. Be very careful not to damage the steering rack in anyway.
8. This hard line banjo bolt was striped. I decided to just cut it short with a hack-saw and hammer
the end closed. The system will no longer be pressurized, so I just need to keep dirt and debris
out.
Smashed closed with plyers. I filed the sharp edges as to not cut myself handling the rack.
9. While you can buy M12 x 1.5 caps for all the “ports” in the system, I decided to cheap out and
crimp two of the lines shut, and found some scrap lying around to take the place of the hard line
for the other two banjo bolts. Like I said before, you just need to keep the dirt out (while
keeping the bolts from sticking too far into the housing).